Posted on 07/13/2006 7:05:40 AM PDT by Zakeet
The day was winding down for most Iraqis as Pfc. Kameron Coleman was drowning in fuel inside a burning Bradley fighting vehicle.
A group of soldiers from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division had just received a new platoon leader earlier that day and were showing him their operations area.
At 5:15 p.m., a few minutes after their patrol began, their Bradley exploded and flipped upside-down after rolling over a roadside bomb.
The first thing Spc. Wesley Whitehead saw after he jumped out of the smoking Bradley was the lifeless body of his former platoon leader, Capt. Simon Cox, crushed under the vehicle.
"Then I saw the new lieutenant, and he was, uh, he was injured," Whitehead said during a recent telephone call from Baghdad.
Whitehead thought there wasn't any way Coleman, the Bradley's driver, had survived. He began to worry about Coleman's wife and baby.
Then he heard Coleman yelling for help.
"The first thing I thought was, 'That's my job to go in there and get him out,'" Whitehead, 29, said. "So, I did. I kept thinking to save the kid, if there was anything left of him to save.
"I was the first to hear him yell for help," Whitehead continued. "In the Army, we're taught to volunteer first for everything. I feel like I was the first to hear him yell for help, so I needed to be the one to go in and get him."
To save his friend, Whitehead hopped into what soldiers call the "hell hole," a small tunnel connecting the driver's compartment and the vehicle's turret.
Not long before the Feb. 2 incident, Cox had taught Whitehead to make sure the "hell hole" wasn't blocked because he might have to pull the driver out through that passageway if something bad happened.
Whitehead had trained on how to pull soldiers out of the hatch, but the guidance of his fallen former platoon leader is what helped him know how to get Coleman out of the "hell hole."
If he had not been rescued, Coleman would have suffocated from the smoke or drowned in the fuel that was pouring on him, Whitehead said. Because of what he did that day, Whitehead earned the Bronze Star medal for valor in combat.
The Bronze Star with V-device is the highest combat valor award given by the 4th Infantry to date during this tour in Iraq, said Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington, the division's spokesman in Baghdad.
Since the division's second trip to Iraq began late last year, 38 Bronze Star medals have been awarded for valor, according to statistics provided by the division's public affairs office.
Another 710 Bronze Star medals without the V-device have been awarded, as have 458 Purple Heart medals for injuries received in combat, four Army Commendation Medals for valor in combat, 235 Meritorious Service Medals and 2,675 Combat Action Badges for being engaged in combat.
Whitehead was surprised to receive the Bronze Star for valor because he's, "just a specialist."
"I think it was heroic," Whitehead said about what he did. "But I don't think I'm the only person who would have done it. I don't feel I'm different from a lot of the other guys."
Sgt. Daniel Alaniz, who was in the Bradley that day, tells a slightly different story about Whitehead, that he is different from a lot of other guys.
Alaniz also received the Bronze Star for valor for his actions after the explosion, but he said Whitehead's actions were "braver than anything I ever did."
Alaniz provided security so Whitehead could pull Coleman out of the Bradley.
Insurgents began firing at the Bradley after the bomb exploded. Alaniz took some Iraqi soldiers he was training with him as he inspected a nearby house for the insurgents. They had left by the time Alaniz and the Iraqi soldiers arrived, so Alaniz returned to the Bradley to seal off the area.
Alaniz said he was just doing what was expected of him as a noncommissioned officer and leader. He knows at 39 he is old enough to be a father to some soldiers, and that is why he wants to set an example.
Even so, he'll probably never tell his family how he earned the medal or why it was so important that the Army's chief of staff pinned it to his uniform.
"I don't talk about what we do over here so they don't have to worry about me," Alaniz said. "I told my mom I drove a truck and never left the (forward operating base). She doesn't know what my (military occupational specialty) is."
Alaniz, an infantryman, did send some photos home of being presented the medal by Gen. Peter Schoomaker because he thought his family might have seen the Army's top general on television.
"They probably didn't realize how important (being presented the award by Schoomaker) was to me," Alaniz said, but that's OK with him because understanding would mean knowing what he endured to earn it.
Schoomaker also presented a Bronze Star for valor to Staff Sgt. John Gilbert, who serves with the battalion's Alpha Company.
Like Alaniz, setting an example for younger soldiers is important to Gilbert.
"A lot of them are pretty young," said Gilbert, 37. "They look up at you, so you don't want to set a bad example for them. It's sort of like, if you don't do it, who will?"
Gilbert admits what he did to receive the medal was contrary to common sense, but, as he said repeatedly, if he didn't do it, who would?
Gilbert was patrolling an area north of Baghdad one day, maybe in March. He said he has heard so many explosions he doesn't "keep up with the dates any more."
He normally doesn't run into more than one car bomb in a day, though. His patrol came upon the first car bomb while a coalition convoy and a special operations unit were heading north toward him.
Gilbert and his soldiers were ambushed from the east and west. A dozen people shot at them for about 10 minutes.
As soon as the attack was under control, Gilbert and his soldiers prepared to clear the car for more explosives. That's when the mortars came flying in.
The special operations unit turned around and began heading back south when something exploded south of Gilbert. He saw smoke and ran down the road to check on the special operations unit.
He secured the area, which had been damaged by the second car bomb, and took care of injured soldiers until reinforcements arrived.
While he said running from one attack to the other alone was "pretty stupid," Gilbert thought he prevented further attacks on the special forces unit because Gilbert's interpreter was carjacked a few minutes later.
"It probably sounds bad, but I wasn't thinking about nothing but making sure everyone was safe," Gilbert said of his rationale behind checking on the special forces unit. "I thought about (what could have happened) later that day. In a way, that was pretty stupid, but it had to be done. I'd probably do everything the same again if I had to."
That's why he doesn't understand why he was chosen to receive the combat valor award. He was "just doing (his) job" on "just another day" at work.
He simply reiterates that, while he takes a few chances he says he shouldn't, he's just trying to set an example.
"It sounds corny, but I'm their platoon sergeant," Gilbert said. "I feel like I need to do it before (other soldiers). I've just always been that way. I ain't going to make someone do something I haven't done or I'm not willing to do myself."
Whitehead is bashful about the example he set that day. He still works with Coleman and admits he's embarrassed every time Coleman tells someone Whitehead saved his life.
"I just wanted to serve my country, and I wanted to do something to make a difference in this world," Whitehead said about his job. "I'm pretty proud to be an American. I want (Americans) to be safe, even if I have to pay the ultimate price."
Contrast this story with kerry full-throttling his swiftboat down the river when the mine blew under the other Swiftboat......THIS story is the norm....kerrys action in running from wounded sailors in a broken boat leaving them to face the enemy alone is cowardice, pure and simple.
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What a mensch.
You know, I must have missed this story on CNN or MSNBC the other night. I'll check the New York Times for it...
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